Blue Jeans and Cotton Tees

It’s quite a dichotomy.

Within a 48 hour period in 2 different Goodwill stores in 2 different states – my daughter bought these 2 very different shoes.

One is a pretty and quite feminine pair of black heels.

The other is a clunky pair of insulated army boots.

And she loves them both!

I’m glad that she is comfortable as a pretty princess in pumps and as a tomboy keeping up with her brothers on the snowy trails.

I hope she never outgrows either one!

But I’m even more glad that she is comfortable – and even excited – to go shopping at a thrift store.

She’s not only a pretty princess and a tomboy – but she’s also a treasure hunter!

You must know by now that I love traditions – especially holiday traditions!

Valentine’s Day just happens to be one of my favorites!

Somewhere around baby number three we realized that finding a sitter and heading out to eat on Valentine’s Day was more expensive and stressful then it was worth.

So I made a special meal for the entire family – and served it by candlelight.

A tradition was born.

This year was no exception! But since we had a church activity on Valentine’s day – we celebrated early.  Dagmar was our chef for the evening and decorated the table with candles and napkins.

It is amazing how beautiful 25 cent silk flowers from the thrift store look in candlelight! It’s also amazing how candlelight covers up the baskets of unfolded laundry, the piles of toys, and the school books that never got put away!

Notice the napkins? Over twelve years ago I bought some nice red cotton material, cut it into napkins and hemmed them up. We’ve used them for Christmas and Valentine’s Day ever since!

The menu varies somewhat from year to year – but always includes red jello with Cool Whip. This year Dagmar got fancy with a heart mold and conversation hearts!

An Italian dish – like cavatini or lasagna is almost always our main dish. This year it was a yummy sausage lasagna! She added a lettuce salad and freshly baked baguettes. We filled our garage sale stemmed glasses with pink lemonade to drink.

Dessert is always cream puffs – always!

They are filled with French vanilla cream and topped with chocolate ganache.  Yummy! This year we fancied up the plates a little with Smucker’s raspberry plate-scapers.

There is usually a card or two to open, maybe a small gift or chocolate treat.

It’s a simple, but very special way to celebrate with my Valentine’s.

What better way to say “I Love You” then with food!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

My refrigerator was stuffed.

I’m not sure how it happened, but somehow the left-over’s got out of control. I had lots of  little containers full of little bits of stuff.

It was time to be creative.

Buddy was my “sous chef” for supper – and he loves thinking outside the box! Normally he comes up with all sorts of wild ideas and I remind him to stick to the recipe.

But not tonight!

He grabbed different things from the fridge and together we figured out somewhere to use it!

He used up some of the extra milk we got on sale to make his favorite pudding. We put that in parfait glasses. Then he did a layer using the dibby-dab of cream cheese mixed with the chocolate ganache that I had hidden in the back of the fridge. He topped it with the last of the whipped cream from the dessert the other night.

Then he found two graham crackers in the cupboard and crushed them on to sprinkle on top. I grabbed the last two tablespoons of crushed walnuts that were in the freezer and added them to the crumbs.

Dessert was done, now it was time for the main dish.

We started with the left-over chicken and cream sauce.

I dug out the chicken and cut in up. Meanwhile, Buddy found some left-over turkey, some gravy, part of a container of mozzarella cheese, a bit of left-over onion dip, and some cold buttered noodles.

Perfect!

We cooked up the two odd packages of pasta that were open in the pantry. Mixed the whole thing together with the left-over cream sauce and added enough milk to coat everything.

I was just pouring into a casserole dish when buddy discovered a small container of crushed saltines.

We tossed them with a little Parmesan cheese and sprinkled the whole works on top.

It baked for about 40 minutes at 350 degrees and we had a one-of-a-kind delicious casserole – almost entirely of left-overs!

Don’t you just love an (almost) free meal!

Picture by Luigi Chiesa

I hate waste.

I love turning something apparently useless into something wonderful…

…like chicken bones.

Last night Angel Girl and I made a chicken pasta dish for supper. After I had cut the raw chicken off the bones, I noticed that there was still some meat left on them.

Instead of throwing them out – I dumped the bones and skin into the crock pot and covered them with water.

I threw in a skinned and halved onion,  some celery, and a scrubbed carrot (cut in chunks).

Then I added a few peppercorns, some dried sage, parsley and thyme.

I turned the crock pot on low and forgot about it.

This morning I had a rich dark chicken broth waiting for me!

I drained the broth and refrigerated it.

The bones and vegetables went to the chickens since they had given up their lives for the sake of the broth and had no flavor left.

The fat will rise to the top of the broth as it cools and can be easily taken off and thrown away.

Now I have a nice broth to use in a soup, or in any recipe that calls for chicken broth.

It’s a good feeling to use up even the scraps – although I may never attain to Mrs. Rachel Lynde’s high standards…

“Anne’s a good housekeeper…I’ve looked into her bread box and her scrap pail. I always judge a housekeeper by those, that’s what. There’s nothing in the pail that shouldn’t have been thrown away and no stale bread in the bread box…”

Anne’s House of Dreams by L.M. Montgomery

The hubby and I loaded up our passel of young’uns and headed for the big city the other day.

Ya’ll know the big city? It’s the one with traffic lights and more lanes of traffic than I have lines on my clothesline.

We aren’t like most folks who head right to the mall when they hit town. No – we drove right on past it and stopped at Goodwill. Figured some other silly person can pay full price, wear it 6 months and donate it. Then we’d buy it for a few bucks.

Works real well.

We also hit the DAV and came away with real nice camo jackets for the whole crew, even found camo hats for a few of them.  We’ll be styling this fall!

Then we headed off to find us some vittles. There were lots of fancy eating places – but we kept driving until we saw Arby’s . The sign said 5 regular roast beef sandwiches for just $5. Now that’s our idea of good eating!

After a stop at the Arctic Cat dealer and a scenic drive we finished our day at Sam’s Club were we had a mid-afternoon snack of free samples.

And that’s what happens when the country folk hit the big city – some might call us cheap, but I think it’s just frugal family fun.

Photo by Leon7 / Wikipedia Commons